Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living From Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

Death of Domitian; succeeded by Nerva

98

Death of Nerva; succeeded by Trajan

100

Birth of Junius Rusticus, grandson of Arulenus Rusticus, and Stoic mentor of Marcus Aurelius

101

Death of Musonius Rufus?

107–11

Arrian attends Epictetus’s lectures in Nicopolis and records them in what will become theDiscoursesandHandbook

112/3

Death of Pliny the Younger in Bithynia

117

Death of Trajan; succeeded by Hadrian

118

Euphrates of Tyre commits suicide by drinking hemlock, with Hadrian’s blessing

120

Hierocles flourishes, composing his Circles around this time

121

Birth of Marcus Aurelius in Rome on April 26

135

Death of Epictetus

131–37

Arrian appointed governor of Cappadocia by Hadrian

138

Death of Hadrian; succeeded by Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius’s adoptive father

161

Death of Antoninus Pius; succeeded by Marcus Aurelius

165

Execution of Justin Martyr by judgment of Junius Rusticus

170

Death of Junius Rusticus

176

Marcus Aurelius reestablishes the four chairs of philosophy in Athens

180

Death of Marcus Aurelius in Vindabona on March 17

197

Tertullian writes positively in Carthage about Cleanthes’s theology and Marcus Aurelius’s being “a protector” of Christians in his Apologetics

c. 200

Sextus Empiricus and Alexander of Aphrodisias write polemics against Stoicism

Clement of Alexandria writes about Stoic philosophical positions in his Stromata

Diogenes Laërtius begins the studies that will produce his Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

SOURCES CONSULTED AND FURTHER READING

Primary Stoic Texts and Histories

Annas, Julia, ed. Cicero: On Moral Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Contains a very helpful introduction and timeline of Cicero’s writings.

Dyck, Andrew R. A Commentary on Cicero, De Officiis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Edelstein, Ludwig, and I. G. Kidd. Posidonius. Vol. 1, The Fragments. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Graver, Margaret. Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Graver, Margaret, and A. A. Long, trans. and commentary. Letters on Ethics by Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Kidd, I. G. Posidonius. Vol. 2, The Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

———. Posidonius. Vol. 3, The Translation of the Fragments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Includes important doxographical and historical source works such as Diogenes Laërtius, Plutarch, Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio Cassius, Athenaeus, Aulus Gellius, Historia Augusta, and others, along with Cicero and the many primary Stoic texts by Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. www.loebclassics.com.

Long, A. A., trans. How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life, Epictetus’ Encheiridion and Selections from Discourses. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.

Long, A. A., and D. N. Sedley. The Hellenistic Philosophers. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Lutz, Cora E. Musonius Rufus: The Roman Socrates. Yale Classical Studies, vol. 10. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1947. This collection of Musonius’s lectures and fragments was reissued without the Otto Hense Greek text under the title That One Should Disdain Hardships: The Teachings of a Roman Stoic, with an introduction by Gretchen Reydams-Schils. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2020.

Mensch, Pamela, trans., and James Miller, ed. Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Not only a superb translation, but the collected essays are invaluable.